Official: Masterflex Calcium Reactor Setup Thread

[gregr]

Thanks- they are a great company- bought stuff from them before.

[zachts]

Originally Posted by gregr

That is a great help- thanks! My tank is a heavily stocked 150 so I'd be close to running wide open with not much room to grow. Back to watching Ebay. Unfortunately a lot of the pumps for sale don't list the specs and aren't being made any more at CP so it's tricky.

Just pick up one of the digital drive units which are going for between $100-$300 used and then pick out the head that matches the tubing you need for your desired flow range. Should not have a hard time finding them right now, I was poking around and saw at least 6 units like this one for sale.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cole-Parmer-...item25929a39cb

[gregr]

Ah that is excellent. I'd been looking only for a drive unit and pump together and the good ones were mostly close to $500. Thanks for the help.

[gregr]

Heads up- Harris 9200NC regulator on Ebay at a good price if it's the one mentioned in the thread a while back.

I decided to get the digital drive thank you very much. Also got a 7518-10 Easy-Load pump head. Thanks for the pointer. Will report back when I've got it running. Can't tell you how much I look forward to not having to adjust the reactor output every day.

[hkgar]

I was going to recommend the 7518-00 because of the range of acceptable tubing. I like to use the L 17 with the fittings shown in one of the posts on page one I believe.

[gregr]

Great- that's what I ordered. With these pump heads and L17 tubing we have up to 280ml/min. I'm hoping it will be nice and quiet running at 10-15% power (roughly).

[gdemos]

Any tips on purging air out if the reactor. I run two reactors both reed octopus. One is a 5000 dual chamber the other a 1000 single. The single is more problematic with air on chamber. I find that shutting off the gas recirc reduces air. Leaving it open tends to chop up what air is in the system. Also if I reduce the gas then I will not reduce the pH to the level I need to melt the media, so reducing gas is not an option. I do have a very long run from co2 tank to reactor

[gregr]

tkeracer619- thank you for all your work in putting this thread together. Your guidance is greatly appreciated
gdemos- I'm not familiar with that reactor but is it possible to run it in reverse like people are doing with the Korallin 1502? There's a diagram on page one of the thread.

[hkgar]

Originally Posted by gdemos

Any tips on purging air out if the reactor. I run two reactors both reed octopus. One is a 5000 dual chamber the other a 1000 single. The single is more problematic with air on chamber. I find that shutting off the gas recirc reduces air. Leaving it open tends to chop up what air is in the system. Also if I reduce the gas then I will not reduce the pH to the level I need to melt the media, so reducing gas is not an option. I do have a very long run from co2 tank to reactor

What happens if you simply turn off the CO2? If you keep the pump on and the CO2 off it should simply push the CO2 out.

[tkeracer619]

Hey everyone just got back from a diving trip and will look over what I missed this evening.

The regulator posted on ebay a few posts back IS** the one I mention previously. Someone needs to buy that! Its a $400 regulator and is the best of the best. I may snatch it up if nobody else does but right now I don't need it (but I do want it). This regulator will stay at whatever psi you set it to from start to finish and is compatible with the AP black box. It is big, much bigger than you expect (and heavy) so make sure you have your bottle chained and some extra room under your stand. ** I am not sure what connection it has on it to the bottle but I know its not correct. It looks like an argon reg but all that would need to be swapped would be the connection to the bottle. Please contact Harris to confirm.

If you are getting gas buildup inside the chamber it needs to be vented. Once the gas is built up in the chamber it is unlikely that it will be dissolved. Post some pics so we can get a better look but likely you need to pull effluent from the top of the chamber as stated in that first page post. IIRC the reef octopus units pull from the "high pressure" tubing like many of the reactors on the market. It is a bad design to pull from the "high pressure" tubing as these naturally act as venturis and not water exits... Gas bubbles at speed will not escape through it. FWIW I have set this up on both dual and single octopus reactors so don't fret. We'll get you sorted out.

[gdemos]

I have done that for a period of time; yet the air seems to always find its way back in. I also bump up the mflex to max to pull air out and it creeps back. All lines are tight no leaks. Could I retrofit some kind of bleeder valve? Maybe I'm being impatient and should keep the gas off longer

[vietnam]

Originally Posted by gdemos

I have done that for a period of time; yet the air seems to always find its way back in. I also bump up the mflex to max to pull air out and it creeps back. All lines are tight no leaks. Could I retrofit some kind of bleeder valve? Maybe I'm being impatient and should keep the gas off longer

Pictures of the set up?

As of now what I ended up doing was making a bleeder valve on the output/effluent line (middle fitting on the lid, has a dip down on the inside to draw fluid only) to initially purge air and such out. Let it run for a bit to truly get a majority of it out. Once that is done, close the valve and let it run, then open the gas. Could it be that your adding too much gas and it doesn't have time to dissolve the gas via pump? Also, my second fitting goes back to the suction side of the pump to take in undissolved gas, this one is flush under the lid. That's what made sense to me anyways.

[gdemos]

Not so good with pics hope this works. Here's my two reactors. The lid has 2 John guest fittings, one for effluent one for gas recirc. The effluent fitting dips deeper into the rx chamber. The gas recirc fitting is flush with the lid. Effluent on 1000 reactor is Clear tube, recirc is blue.

If I lower gas I don't get the pH in range of 6.5, and effluent is where I need it to meet demand

[zachts]

Originally Posted by gdemos

Not so good with pics hope this works. Here's my two reactors. The lid has 2 John guest fittings, one for effluent one for gas recirc. The effluent fitting dips deeper into the rx chamber. The gas recirc fitting is flush with the lid. Effluent on 1000 reactor is Clear tube, recirc is blue.

If I lower gas I don't get the pH in range of 6.5, and effluent is where I need it to meet demand

[gdemos]

Sorry recirc is clear effluent clear. Intake blue. - Greg

[gregr]

Got the drive today, put everything together and voila- 30ml/sec steady as can be.
Awesomeness!

[vietnam]

Originally Posted by gdemos

Mark or anyone: trying to find the "auto start" programming feature for my 7550-60. Anyone have? This has the unit restart after power outage at same flow rate

Looking for an answer to this as well.

[tkeracer619]

These are typical auto restart instructions. Another alternative if you cannot use this method is to bridge the remote connections on the plug and switch the unit to remote operation. I tried to find the manual for that model but d

Automatic Start Enable/Disable (INTernal mode only)
Press and hold STOP/START on power-up. After five (5) seconds, display will change to all dashes. Then, while
holding STOP/START, press PRIME five (5) times. Display will flash "ON" or "OFF". Use UP/DOWN (▲, ▼) arrow
keys to set automatic start option. Press any other key to exit. When "ON" is selected, pump will start automatically
at power-up if it was "ON" when powered down.
C

Here is the manual for windows remote control for those models.
http://www.coleparmer.com/Assets/man...-1299-0533.pdf

Originally Posted by gregr

Got the drive today, put everything together and voila- 30ml/sec steady as can be.
Awesomeness!

less of this
more of this
Welcome to the club

[tkeracer619]

Originally Posted by gdemos

The lid has 2 John guest fittings, one for effluent one for gas recirc. The effluent fitting dips deeper into the rx chamber. The gas recirc fitting is flush with the lid.

If I lower gas I don't get the pH in range of 6.5, and effluent is where I need it to meet demand

Keep the gas flow and effluent how it is if you are stable.

On the 5000. Disconnect the blue tube from the main body of the reactor and put a valve on it. Using a 3/8, 3/8, 1/4 Tee connect both outputs on the lid together. The recirc is unnecessary.

On the 1000 swap the two output tubes.

Lets see if any of this helps purge the trapped gas.

[gregr]

After letting the new setup run thru the night with excellent consistency I made a small tweak this morning. A few hours later the pH went up by about .2 units 3 times between 10am and 2pm:

The pH of the tank went from 8.15 to 8.23 over the same period, as per usual. Since the new CP pump is rock solid I'm guessing the regulator is the cause except the bubble rate was unchanged- still right where I set it this morning. Any ideas on what the issue is? Maybe nothing? The regulator is only a few months old but it's not a fancy one- just the standard Milwaukee MA957.

[tkeracer619]

How old is the probe?

[gregr]

It's about 9 months old now. Any idea of their lifespan? It's lab grade from Neptune.
I haven't made any adjustments to the bubble count or drip rate since this morning and the readings went from 6.46 to 6.64. Maybe that drift is no big deal? I'll still be an extremely happy camper if it stays in the ballpark without me having to adjust it every day or two. Ideally though I want it to stay between 6.45-6.5. It's Reborn media that the manufacturer told me should be 6.4-6.5.
The tank itself goes from roughly 8.05 to 8.25 during the day so perhaps that accounts for some of the drift?

[tkeracer619]

The ph of the tank will directly effect the measured number in the reactor. There is no need to try and compensate for that. Check out the reactors performance over a few days, see how it runs. If its irregular then there is likely something going on in the reg or its controller.

You can see these types of things when you have stable effluent. I suspect all is normal but keep an eye out for trends that may develop.

[gregr]

Ok- I'll sit back and enjoy. Thanks!

[vietnam]

I finally got my calcium reactor up and running again. Haven't ordered my tubing for the masterflex pump but I've hooked up the Carbondoser electronic regulator and am very impressed. So far the reactor has stabilized below 6.5 pH.